On Both Sides of the Tracks: Social Mobility in Contemporary French Literature (Hardcover) (ISBN-13: 9780226827124)

An analysis of social mobility in contemporary French literature that offers a new perspective on figures who move between social classes.

Social climbers have often been the core characters of novels. Their position between traditional tiers in society makes them touchstones for any political and literary moment, including our own. Morgane Cadieu's study looks at a certain kind of social climber in contemporary French literature whom she calls the parvenant. Taken from the French term parvenu, which refers to one who is newly arrived, a parvenant is a character who shuttles between social groups. A parvenant may become part of a new social class but devises literary ways to come back, constantly undoing any fixed idea of social affiliation.

Focusing on recent French novels and autobiographies, On Both Sides of the Tracks speaks powerfully to issues of emancipation and class. Cadieu offers a fresh critical look at tales of social mobility in the work of Annie Ernaux, Kaoutar Harchi, Michel Houellebecq, ﾉdouard Louis, and Marie NDiaye, among others, shedding fascinating light on upward mobility today as a formal, literary problem.

Author: Morgane Cadieu
ISBN-10: 0226827127
ISBN-13: 9780226827124
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
Language: English
Published: 01/09/2024
Pages: 362
Format: Hardcover
Weight: 1.34lbs
Size: 8.50h x 5.50w x 0.94d